Middle East — 2026-09-26

US Signs Deal to Hand Over Baghdad Airport Diplomatic Hub to Iraq as Coalition Forces Complete Withdrawal by September 30

BLUFBaghdad's sequencing pins legitimacy of militia disarmament to a coalition departure now effectively complete, leaving the June deadline for armed factions as the real test of state authority.

Iraq's Foreign Ministry announced early Friday that US charge d'affaires Steven Fagin and Iraqi Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammed Hussein Bahr Al Uloom signed an agreement transferring the Diplomatic Support Centre at Baghdad International Airport to the Iraqi government 123. The handover precedes the September 30 deadline for the remaining US-led coalition troops to complete their withdrawal from Iraq, after which coalition forces will remain only at Erbil airport 12. Khaleej Times and The Times of Israel, both citing AFP, reported the facility had already been evacuated by US troops earlier this month according to an Iraqi security official and a diplomatic source, and that Iran-backed armed groups struck US sites more than 600 times during the recent war, including the airport hub 23. Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Al Zaidi has said September 30 is a firm deadline for ending the coalition's military mission and stated this week that a related disarmament process for armed factions would be completed by next June 1.

Analysis
The formal transfer is largely administrative, since the facility was reportedly emptied of US personnel weeks before the September 25 signing, so it mainly formalizes a withdrawal already complete on the ground. This reading rests on a single Iraqi Foreign Ministry disclosure relayed largely through AFP wire copy rather than independently corroborated reporting. The September 30 coalition deadline removes Iran-backed factions' stated justification for retaining weapons well ahead of the separate disarmament process Prime Minister Ali Al Zaidi has pushed to next June, leaving that gap between symbolic departure and actual arms surrender as the friction point to watch. The ceremony may function primarily as a domestic and Tehran-facing signal that foreign presence is ending, regardless of whether the militia disarmament timeline holds.

4 sources

US signs deal to hand over diplomatic hub at Baghdad airport to Iraqi government - The National
US to hand over diplomatic centre at Baghdad airport, Iraqi foreign minister says - Khaleej Times
US to hand over diplomatic center at Baghdad airport, Iraqi foreign minister says - The Times of Israel
US to Hand Over Center at Baghdad Airport, Says Iraqi FM - Asharq Al-Awsat